In a recent event in March 2022, China’s President Xi Jinping announced that it is essential for China to develop proteins from plants and via fermentation methods.
Chinese investors are showing an increasing interest in alternative proteins with the expectations that this could diversify the country’s protein supply as well as reduce food-related carbon emissions.
One interesting area is the further development of cell-based protein technologies which are gaining traction in China. According to GFI Consultancy, a Shanghai-based partner of Good Food Institute, China’s fermentation alternative protein segment has recorded 8 investment deals since 2020 with total investment value of US$11.9 million. GFI Consultancy further commented in a report that “China’s alternative protein industry has ushered in a critical transition period, from rapid expansion to quality development.”
Interest in plant-based meat and other alternative proteins is on the rise. In fact, China’ plant-based meat market has been continuously growing in the past few years, reaching Rmb 748 million (US$111 million) in market size in 2020, up 10.6% from 2019, according to latest research from Euromonitor Plc.
Nevertheless, the plant-based meat sector faces several key hurdles as consumers felt the existing products still have much room for improvement in terms of taste, texture and nutrition.
China is all set to reduce carbon emissions in all sectors, including animal farming, to reach carbon neutrality by 2060. China is also facing the future threat of a total meat deficit of more than 53 million tonnes in the 10-year period from 2021 to 2030. As such, the rapid transition to diversified protein sources seems to be the only option for the country of 1.4 billion population.
Fermentation-based, or cell-cultured proteins seem to be the best option as it helps to resolve the protein deficit while at the same time addresses consumer demand for taste, texture and nutrition, while at the same time achieves the country’s zero carbon ambition.
Various research reports have already shown a bright future for cultivated meat. According to AT Kearney, 60% of meat products y 2040 will be alternative proteins and cultivated meat will take up 35% share while plant-based meat the remainding 25% share. The long term future seems to be brighter for cultivated meat while plant-based meat seems to be enjoying faster growth in the near term.
In fact, it wont be long before we see rapid development of cultivated meat in China. Recently, researchers from Tsinghua University and Nanjing Agricultural University have invented their own version of cultured meat which they claimed to be superior to traditional Chinese pork meatballs, both in terms of nutritional content – higher protein and lower fat, as well containing other essential minerals. It also has similar taste to conventional meat.
Researchers from the 2 universities said that they have developed an edible, 3D porous gelatin micro-carrier as a cell expansion scaffold. Using the micro-carrier, they found cell expansion increased 20-fold in 7 days. That compares to less than 10-fold expansion over the same period in previous studies. The researchers cultured pig muscle cells and fat cells separately before putting them together into a 3D-printed mould. With the help of an enzyme, they created centimetre-scale meatballs. According to the researchers, “Such meat engineering method enables robust and scalable bio-fabrication of ground meat alternatives such as meatballs or sausages, which may innovate the future meat menu.”
